50 pulp cover treatments of classic works of literature

[frauenfelder]

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/05/04/50-pulp-cover-treatments-of-cl.html

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[anon48584343]

The synesthesia is strong with this one:

[Turnips]

I have that 1984. I’m going out on a limb here but I think the social incongruities/confusion/doublespeak illustrated on the cover adds more to the text than its luridity suggests. If its goal was to get me to buy it and reread it then, yes, it was a success. The bonus was a great essay I got to write in my head as I read it.

[Mister44]

I found out one of the reasons pulp fantasy and scifi had so many lurid covers AND scenes in the stories - at least for Weird Tales was:

The publisher paid more for your story if they used it as the bases of the cover. They also weren’t shy about adding partial nudity. So the writers were more likely to have a scantly clad damsel in chains in their stories in the hopes the scene would make a good cover.

[ProseAndKahn]

At the risk of blatant self-promotion (of a blog I haven’t updated in over half a year), I’d like to remind you all that Tutis publishing, a low rent publisher of public domain titles, has one of the most consistently and hilariously bad records of choosing covers and I have a brief rundown of some (here and here).

[SamWinston]

I have to wonder if the cover of the “Brave New World” inspired the design of the “Guardian of Forever” from Star Trek’s “City on the Edge of Forever”

[ChuckV]

@anon48584343

The synesthesia is strong with this one:

And it whitewashes the book, just like the movie did!